Marijuana May Be Safer Than Previously Thought

Trending News: Science Says Weed Is The Safest Drug You Can Do

Why Is This Important?

Because marijuana legalization just got some scientific support.

Long Story Short

New research finds that marijuana may not only be safer than previously thought, but the safest of all recreational drugs in terms of its likelihood to kill you. The most dangerous? Alcohol, which may have long been underestimated by the medical field.

Long Story

You hear it from your stoner friends all the time (or maybe it’s you who is the stoner friend): “Weed is a safe drug, man. They should legalize it.” According to the latest research, they may be right. Individual marijuana use has the lowest associated risk of death of all recreational drugs tested. Alcohol was the deadliest, followed by heroin and cocaine.

The study compared lethal doses of drugs compared to what an average user would consume. By that measure, marijuana is 114 times less lethal than alcohol. This is, in some ways, intuitive — anyone who’s smoked a bit of pot understands that it would be nigh-impossible to smoke enough of it to kill yourself. In fact, the more recent findings only reinforce a similar quantification conducted 10 years ago.

On the other hand, it’s a lot easier to drink, inject or snort yourself to death. Tobacco also ranks high due to the bevy of noxious chemicals ingested, though I doubt that anyone’s ever cigarette-ed themselves to death in a single sitting. Curiously enough, meth is the second-safest drug on the list, though it falls so far behind so as to not really deserve inclusion in the conversation.

Of course, the toxicological effects of drugs aren’t the only reason they’re dangerous. Alcohol, besides being toxic in its own right, combines impairment with enhanced risk-tolerance to make something as simple as walking down the sidewalk a dangerous proposition. The most time-honored weed smoking activity, on the other hand, seems to be sitting still and laughing at movies that really aren’t all that funny.

Still, nothing that causes mental impairment is completely safe. Marijuana has been linked to mental health issues, especially when consumed at a young age. And, not for nothing, doing anything requiring quick reflexes and fine motor skills (like driving) while high is monumentally dangerous. My fraternity brothers who lovingly turned Williamsburg, VA’s Colonial Parkway into “the sparkway” did so at their own peril.

What the research tells us is that anti-drug advocates are perhaps fighting the wrong enemy. While legalization at the national level seems unlikely any time soon, the far-deadlier alcohol and tobacco remain available for purchase by anyone old enough.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: When is legislation going to catch up with the realities of medical science?

Disrupt Your Feed: Personally I’d rather be high than drunk, anyway.

Drop This Fact: The wacky weed is also crazy profitable - Colorado’s legalization brings the state about $30 million in taxable revenue per month, and they only recently legalized it.